people management

Articles

Most Common QA Myths

One of my mentors, whom I admire, once told me, "Quality is not only QA's responsibility; everyone- from development engineers to technical architects, to product managers need to share the responsibilities. In a QA role, if you want to be successful, you have to know the right amount of information from everyone and always ask questions." I took my mentor's advice very seriously. 

Dilruba Malik's picture Dilruba Malik
Agile developers and testers collaborating Testing in Agile: How to Get Started

There is a lot of interest in organizations around a transformation to agility. However, the focus is usually on agile development, so it may not be clear how software testing is done in agile. If you're responsible for leading your testing teams, don't let them be left behind. Here’s how you can make testers part of the transformation, too—step by step, because this is agile, after all.

Balazs Schaffhauser's picture Balazs Schaffhauser
"Wrong Way" road sign To Get Quality Software, Let Them Fail

As an advocate for quality, you look at the product, take into account time, budget, and other business constraints, and recommend fixes to ship a product with the best possible quality. ... And the businesspeople in production don’t want to fix it. How can you communicate bugs and risk to people who don't want to listen? Instead of getting frustrated, you need to frame issues in a meaningful way—and, if you have to, let people fail.

Matt Heusser's picture Matt Heusser
Test manager putting his hands up to his head in frustration Dealing with a Test Manager’s Most Annoying Problems

A test manager has to perform in multiple dimensions, using a variety of professional and interpersonal skills daily. With all these career facets, there are lots of different areas that can pose a problem. Here are the most common (and most annoying) things a test manager typically hears on a regular basis, as well as some strategies for how to deal with them.

László Szegedi's picture László Szegedi

Better Software Magazine Articles

All Customers Are Not Created Equal All Customers Are Not Created Equal

Software developers may not think they have much to do with customers, but it is wise to consider the customer in all you do, from collecting requirements to design and implementation.

Regina Evans's picture Regina Evans
The Secrets of High- Performance Software Teams The Secrets of High-Performance Software Teams

Of all issues that impact getting quality products out on time, the team should never focus on simply managing costs. To minimize the risk of perpetual product delivery delays, define what “done” really means.

Steve Mezak's picture Steve Mezak
tolerate You Get What You Tolerate

We’ve all worked with a talented developer who can be a frustrating challenge to manage. First-time managers may unknowingly encourage bad behavior. There are several innovative ways to resolve the situation.

Andy Kaufman's picture Andy Kaufman
handstand The Power of Thinking Upside Down

Software developers can become bogged down trying to keep up with agile process and procedures. Get better results by rethinking your approach to balancing focus, agility, management, and testing.

Paul McMahon's picture Paul McMahon

Interviews

Gene Gotimer Adapting to Working from Home: A Conversation with Gene Gotimer
Video

Gene Gotimer, principal consultant at Coveros, chats with TechWell community manager Owen Gotimer about the challenges individuals and organizations face while we work from home during this global pandemic and how getting thrown into remote work could shape our future.

Owen Gotimer's picture Owen Gotimer
Melissa Tondi Embracing Tools and Technology in QA: An Interview with Melissa Tondi
Video

In this interview, Melissa Tondi, senior QA strategist at Rainforest, discusses the foundation you need in order to have a positive introduction for new tools and technologies. She explains why the team leader has to understand what motivates each individual and how to get them excited about their job. Melissa says team members also have to realize that if they are in any way involved in testing software, they are a technologist, so they have to embrace the tools and technology that will continuously improve and streamline repetitive tasks.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine
8 Ways to Ruin Your One-on-Ones: An Interview with Jason Wick
Video

In this interview, Jason Wick, senior manager at MakeMusic, discusses his STAREAST presentation about eight ways you could be making your one-on-one meetings completely useless. He discusses in depth what he feels is the number one way to ruin these meetings: holding back on feedback. He also offers advice on how you can educate your team leader to avoid the pitfalls that lead to ineffective one-on-ones.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine
Achieving a Balance between Manual and Automated Testing: An Interview with Jim Holmes
Video

Jim Holmes, executive consultant at Pillar Technology, discusses tools and methods to effectively communicate with management your goals for balancing manual with automated testing.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine

Conference Presentations

Agile + DevOps East Become the Person Everyone Wants to Work With
Slideshow

Drawing from her own experiences across twenty years in a range of industry roles, Jaimee Newberry shares true stories of at least a dozen tiny but important things she still sees every day that could make all the difference in how people work with you. 

Jaimee Newberry
Agile DevOps West Brainwriting: The Team Hack to Generating Better Ideas
Slideshow

Brainstorming has long been held as the best way to get ideas from teams. The purpose is to solicit large amounts of ideas in a short timeframe.

Chris Murman
Agile DevOps West Distributed Scrum Teams Whack-a-Mole:
 Creative Solutions to 
Common Obstacles
Slideshow

Taking a newly formed distributed Scrum team from mediocre to high-performing has its share of challenges, including differences in language, culture, and time zones; a misunderstanding of Scrum; and the "us versus them" mentality.

Kimberly Andrikaitis
STAREAST 8 Ways to Ruin Your One-on-Ones
Slideshow

As managers, it's easy to fall into the trap of focusing on what we need out of our employees' one-on-one meetings, all the while forgetting that one-on-ones are for them! 

Jason Wick

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